OCD Foundation asks village board for $5,000, county board for $25,000
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The founder of the OCD Foundation (Our Communities Deliver) has asked the Colfax Village Board for a $5,000 donation.
Travis Allen, who also serves as the chair of the OCD Foundation’s Board of Directors, spoke to the village board at the January 14 meeting.
Allen also spoke during the public comments portion of the Dunn County Board meeting January 16 and asked for a donation of $25,000. The donation was not an agenda item for the county board.
Allen sent a seven-page e-mail message to Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, dated December 7 with information about the OCD Foundation.
The OCD Foundation has leased the former nursing home building on High Street from the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center for five years and plans to use the building as a corporate headquarters and as a call center.
The call center will take calls from people seeking help and also will make fund-raising calls to generate revenue for the foundation.
The OCD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to helping the homeless, the hungry and the unemployed, Allen said.
The foundation, as part of its mission, plans to build “community life centers” in Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Madison as well as in other cities around the country, he said.
The OCD Foundation in Colfax also has a store set up in the building and plans to open a cafe and to operate a food pantry, Allen said.
The food pantry will be especially important since the Colfax Community Cares Food Pantry has ceased operations, he said.
The foundation plans to have a grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on January 31, Allen said, adding that he was asking for money from the village to help cover the costs of the grand opening.
Colfax Village Board members asked a number of questions about the OCD Foundation.
Food pantry
Mark Halpin, village trustee, wondered why the Colfax Community Cares Food Pantry left the former nursing home building.
Colfax Community Cares obtained food through the Feed My People food bank in Eau Claire and served between 45 and 60 families in need each month, accounting for over 100 individuals.
The program had been in place since June of 2015.
About half of the clients at Colfax Community Cares were senior citizens, and the other half were age 56 and younger and included both adults and children.
The food pantry had used the dining room on the south side of the former nursing home building for food distribution once a month on the fourth Tuesday.
The OCD Foundation needed the space in the dining room for the store, Allen said, explaining he had moved the food distribution site to another part of the building where he thought there would be sufficient space.
Colfax Community Cares, which needed 10 tables for food distribution, tried the new location but could only fit in nine tables, he said.
Allen said the food pantry had then moved to the Methodist church, but he did not know what happened after that.
Allen said he believed it is important to have a food pantry, and he plans to start his own food pantry.
Occupants
Halpin also asked how many people live in the former nursing home building.
Several news outlets — although not the Colfax Messenger — have reported between 50 and 500 homeless people would be housed in the building.
The building is not a residential facility and is not zoned for residential, Allen said.
There is, however, a crew working 24 hours per day to get the building ready, he said.
The crew works overnight? And what constitutes a crew? asked Colfax resident Del Gunderson, who was a member of the audience.
Allen seemed unaware Gunderson is a member of the CHRC Board of Directors.
Two or three people are working after midnight, and when the call center is up and running, people will have to be there overnight to operate the crisis line, Allen said.
Orlando business
David Wolff, village trustee, asked about a business Allen had owned in Florida and asked what had happened to the business.
The business was called OCD Property Services and had a three-year contract with a condominium association, Allen said.
The business converted one thousand apartments to condominiums, and after the contract was completed, Allen said he had sold the business and then took a year off.
Allen said he began in real estate at the age of 18 and worked as an independent contractor in real estate development, sales and finance from the age of 18 to 31.
Following the contract in Florida, Allen said he had worked for Joseph A. Banks as a regional sales director, and while he believed it “was okay,” the job was not what he wanted to do.
Wolff asked for contacts the village could call with the Orlando downtown development board.
“I can give you references,” Allen said.
Jobs
The OCD Foundation plans to employ 200 people in the Colfax location.
Village Trustee Carey Davis asked where the employees would come from, and if they were planning to live in Colfax, where would they live?
The village board has had previous proposals from builders to construct housing in Colfax, Allen said.
Davis also asked about the salary for OCD Foundation employees.
An average call center associate is paid $22,000 to $34,000 annually, but the OCD Foundation plans to pay $32,000 to $37,000, Allen said.
The OCD Foundation “will bring good people to the area,” he said.
Anne Jenson, village trustee, asked why Allen had selected Colfax.
The decision came down to either Minneapolis or Colfax, Allen said, adding that he had grown up in the area and came home to be closer to family.
“The person I am was formed in this area,” he said.
Locating in Colfax allowed him to give back to his home county, Allen said.
Allen noted he had spoken with Jill Gengler, CHRC administrator, the day before the Board of Directors was scheduled to make a decision on demolition of the former nursing home building.
Jenson, who owns A Little Slice of Italy in downtown Colfax, said as a local employer, from her perspective, finding 200 employees would be a difficult task.
“Two is a stretch,” she said.
Allen explained that he has three recruiters working right now, although a hiring freeze is in place until the call center is set up and ready to go.
The OCD Foundation’s human resources director has worked with Hope Gospel Mission, and the director of fund raising has worked with Head Start. The foundation also has a media relations and grant writing person, Allen said.
Regarding the question of whether all of the employees were expected to come from the Colfax area, Allen said, “as many as possible.”
Housing will need to be added to Colfax eventually, and if the jobs are local, the employees may need to be housed locally, he said.
Revenue
Wolff said he understood coming back to “base roots,” but if the choice was between Colfax and Minneapolis, the OCD Foundation could have eventually opened a branch in Colfax while the available resources would be much better in Minneapolis.
“It came down to wanting to give back to the county” and was an emotional decision rather than a fiscal decision, Allen said.
“I usually do not make emotional decisions regarding business,” he said.
Last week, the OCD Foundation submitted grant applications totaling $490,000, and the foundation planned to submit grant applications for $500,000 the week of the village board meeting, Allen said.
The OCD Foundation needs financial help “for the time being” to get the operations finalized, he said.
Allen said he planned to ask the Dunn County Board for money as well and would like to be able to say the Colfax Village Board is supporting the OCD Foundation, although he also said he knows the village’s 2019 budget is “running tight.”
Gunderson asked about the foundation’s primary sources of revenue.
Grants, funds raised through the call center, sales at the store and the cafe and also sales from the community centers in Chicago and other bigger cities, Allen said.
Colfax will be “setting up the concept” for other cities, he said.
The foundation has 16 grants “in process,” and the grant writer was hired a week and a half ago, Allen said.
Schools & community
In the December 7 e-mail message, Allen talked about school and community fund-raising.
“The OCD Foundation has incorporated an in-house fundraising corporation called ‘Our Communities Deliver’ that will give all proceeds generated by the community fundraising initiatives and school initiatives to the foundation,” Allen wrote.
For the school fund raisers, the idea is that a portion of the sales — pizza, cookies, candy and similar items — will go back to the schools and the remainder to the OCD Foundation.
“Have you asked?” Wolff inquired, wanting to know if Allen had asked schools and other organizations whether they would be interested in participating in the OCD Foundation’s fund-raising projects.
A fund-raising company has been created under the OCD Foundation for school, community and corporate fund-raising, Allen said.
Gary Stene, village president, said the village board was not in a position to make a decision about a donation at the January 14 meeting.
Village board members “have to think about it (because) the budget is tight,” he said.
“We will take it under advisement and decide what we can or cannot do,” Stene said.